Brightened Up (Kainora Shipaversary 2015)
by Silver Days
Summary: A collection of ficlets and drabbles depicting the two airbenders' days off in a warmer and apparently more serene part of the world. Post-series.
1. Day 1

**A/N: Here is my take on the Shipaversary's prompts, all summery and full of light. I didn't plan on making it too fluffy, so you're in for a more humorous ride rather than a mushy gushy one (however, I can't promise it's going to stay a hundred percent like this). Anyway, thanks for taking a look at this. Hope you have a gorgeous summer!**

* * *

 **Day 1: Happy Vacation**

When you close your eyes while facing a timid morning sun, you can see a myriad of oranges and green dots dancing in a bizarre chaos. Light filtering through the skin of your eyelids, gently warming up your eyelashes. You feel your cheeks starting to burn, and continue to follow the strange colourful patterns forming just before your eyes while letting a salty ocean breeze tickle your lips. You proceed to leave everything in the background, empty your mind and slip into a strange, sweet, and hollow daydreaming. It is the beginning of a beautiful day.

Either he could believe it or not, Kai was actually meditating. Void of all the inconveniences, just him, the universe, and the scented air within it. It didn't seem so hard at the moment, but it did take him a while.

Jinora couldn't believe her eyes either, and she had been staring at him silently for five minutes. _I guess every credible ever started as an incredible at some point._ It was almost a shame that she had to wake up her boyfriend from his astral state.

"Kai, dad wants to see you."

The boy would have propelled him to the humble ceiling of the gazebo if he hadn't been at such a peace with everything, but he choked on his spit when he heard it.

"Jinora? What are you doing here? And stop scaring me like that!" he said, his voice feeling weird after such a long time without speaking.

"I didn't mean to scare you. Were you meditating or something?" she teased.

Kai yawned and rubbed his eyes. "Is it such a shock for you?"

"Why yes. Good thing I snapped you out of it before you could fall asleep."

He pointed a finger at her and swallowed down another yawn. "I wasn't sleeping and you shouldn't underestimate me. I can do terrible things to you."

Jinora chuckled softly. "So threatening." But before she could say another word, she found herself lying on the floor, being tickled against her will. She could barely regain composure to say a few words. "What part...of...dad wants to see you...you don't understand? Stop it this instant," she managed to belt out, but she was losing it, collapsing with a thunderous laugh.

"He wants to see me? Why?" he asked stepping up and putting a halt to her torture. He offered her a hand to raise herself on her feet.

"Surprise announcement I guess. We should go to his office now, come on," she said pushing him into the hallway.

The older man was busy signing a stack of papers. It was a spare day for every airbender, most of them having left to see their families, but the master was buried in bureaucratic work. The sun was painting a thin golden net over the scattered sheets.

"Hi, dad. I brought him," Jinora spoke lightheartedly.

"Uhm, good morning, master Tenzin," Kai said emerging from behind her.

"Yes, I've been waiting for you." The men stood up, then cleared his throat. "I've made my mind and I think you two are mature enough to deserve a vacation of your own, wherever you want. Airbenders as trained as you are allowed to travel the world, and you're going to do it more often when you grow up, so this can make some good practice. Just be good, behave yourselves, and have fun. But not too much as some often do," he said eyeing Kai threateningly.

The boy was visibly puzzled with everything, and more so that Tenzin seemed to both trust and distrust him within the very same sentence. Vacation? Just the two of them? _Made my mind_? What was that all about? When did it all happen?

"That's great news, dad. Thanks for giving us the permission," Jinora cut in. "We've been thinking about it and the Haitun island seems perfect for a few sunny days."

"Good. If you're leaving tomorrow, you should start packing by now so you can have time for other things during the day. As you can see, I am a bit busy," he said knocking on the table. "Kai, can you bring us some patchouli tea from the kitchen? I think we all could use some refreshment."

The boy agreed wordlessly, plastering the most confused look on his face, and went out. When he was well gone, the father and the daughter started laughing at their little game. Jinora had been discussing the idea of a vacation even since snow had started melting, and Kai conveniently knew nothing about it.

"I told you that's gonna surprise him big time," Jinora said with a huge grin. "You played your part well."

"Well, it's a nice present for being so hardworking. But seriously, don't think of carrying it too far," Tenzin warned.

"Don't worry, dad. Like you said, we're mature enough - remember, fifteen years? And Kai has also started meditating in his free time for some reason."

"He did?"

"Yes," Jinora said fidgeting with a short pencil found on the desk. "He even started reading some old Air Nomad parchments and a history book from the library. I don't know what has struck him. Maybe he is getting conscious of his responsibility," she spoke admiringly. Her father cupped his face between his index and thumb and hummed in agreement.

Jinora turned her face to the window and saw the leaves of a nearby tree trembling slightly through the breeze. A strange silence dashed with the faint sound of crashing waves and distant seagulls filled the room and made her dream of the place she would be heading to with Kai. It was the perfect time for a perfect vacation, a perfect embracing of every bit of freedom she could touch.

Meanwhile, Tenzin realized he should stop praising Kai on his progress with phrases like, 'If you don't get your tattoos in a few years, you're out of the temple.'


	2. Day 2

**Day 2: Summer Nights**

"There better be a good reason for which you made me sneak out in the woods in the midnight like a freak," Jinora whispered while airbending her way through the unexpectedly thick vegetation.

"I always have a reason," Kai said from a few meters away.

"Sweetheart, I can barely remember the times you had, and actually, neither the times you didn't, so that's not a good thing."

"Believe me, you're going to like this. And why are you whispering? There's only the two of us around here. You're not going to wake anyone up."

They were indeed alone in the woods, walking through a clear and silent night, which made Jinora slightly uncomfortable. _I'd like to wake_ myself _up._ "You do know we're leaving tomorrow, right? When are we going to sleep?"

"We'll have plenty of time, it's not going to take too long if you cooperate. Watch out for this branch, by the way," he said ducking the said obstacle.

Jinora took a look around at the trees that looked far more menacing in the dark, but strangely also more peaceful with all the lemurs sleeping in them.

Lemurs?

"Kai," Jinora whispered again, "there are lemurs around here. We're not alone." Suddenly, the island felt a bit more crowded.

"I never said I had a good eye sight in the dark, but anyway, they're not the only interesting things around here."

The teenager carefully blew a bent branch out of their way to reveal a clearing. It was sprinkled with floating light particles, swirling and brightening up the forest in a mystical fashion.

Jinora stepped closer and widened her eyes. "Fireflies? My... They look so lovely," she spoke in fascination, her eyes sparkling in the light of the swarm of luminous bugs.

"I told you I had a reason. See this," Kai said and handed Jinora a jar the size of a sleeping lemur. "We're going to catch a few."

"This is why you brought the jar with you?"

"What did you expect?"

"I thought you had treats in it or something," Jinora chuckled lightly.

"Nonsense. I ate them all. So, this is how we're going to operate – "

"I get it that it's fun and all to catch fireflies, but you'll release them afterwards, right?"

"Sure," Kai spoke with his most halcyon voice. "Now listen to me..."

Shortly, dozens of miniature air whirls started being launched as improvised nets towards the unsuspecting fireflies, moving along with two arms crazily carrying an open jar to swallow all the insects. Hardly breathing from constant running while holding the jar, Kai stumbled over a twig and fell quite like a plank while managing to put the cap on.

"Spirits, are you okay?" Jinora asked worryingly running towards him.

"Yeah. The fireflies are fine. Can I keep 'em in my room until we release them?"

"Sure you can, but be more careful with all your energy." She helped Kai stand up and pecked his cheek. "I had fun."

Kai lifted the jar so that it was filtering the light of the full moon, casting a blend of white and golden light upon their faces.

"It's so beautiful," Jinora spoke fondly, hypnotized by the image. She giggled and brought the fireflies closer to her. "Nature is spectacular and full of little gems like this." She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "But we still have to go to sleep. You don't want to be late on the beach, right?"

"Beach?" he said widening his eyes. "Uhm, sure. Can't wait to cross the ocean half-asleep."

"And that's why we're going to fly back to the temple now," she said getting ready to fly.

"Jin, I think you're forgetting the fact that we're in our jammies, and we didn't bring our gliders either. That's why we had to march through the forest."

Suddenly, Jinora descended from cloud nine and landed on the overly run over grass of the clearing. "That's...that's great. Sleeping here seems more convenient, actually."

She did sleep in her own bed, carried by a never-running-low-on-energy Kai all the way back to the light-bathed temple. But somewhere in the middle of the forest, a firefly had to fly through the night on its own.


	3. Day 3

**A/N: This prompt is daring.**

* * *

 **Day 3: Bathing Suits**

Logically, the absolute best thing to do after a five-hour trip over the ocean on Pepper's back is to go shopping for every single thing you didn't plan on getting from the much closer Republic City. Although Kai was overwhelmingly tired, he couldn't say 'no' to going downtown with Jinora. It wasn't a big city, and it connected with the sea in the most spectacular way, creating a very pleasing vista of the joint infinities of water and sky. However, it was easy to get lost through all the little shacks which were selling just about everything but food.

"Jinora," Kai said adjusting the bags in his hands, "when are we going to get something to eat? We can't survive on sunshine for an eternity."

"Of course we will, and we're going to buy some for Pepper too, just let us get everything we need from around here. This place feels so exotic..." She brought a hand to her temple thoughtfully. "We got some towels, sunscreen, bandages," she went on mumbling, "Oh yes, I forgot about the bathing suit. I don't have any. Come with me?"

"Come with you?" Kai asked, heat starting to creep into his cheeks, but he was already being dragged by her hand with a hunting hawk precision into another store. Jinora knew very well that Kai mustn't have felt very comfortable, but playing with the other one's nerves is a game for two. Once in, she began rummaging through all kinds of body swimwear, finally finding a fitting model and a nice sea green colour. Then, without any drawbacks, she turned around, placed the suit over her clothing, and, suppressing a smirk, she asked,

"Does it look well on me?"

Kai didn't exactly know what to do with his eyes for the moment, and his blush started being awfully noticeable. "Uh... Yeah, it looks good, it matches your...no," he cleared his voice, "nice...stripes. You look nice. Sure. Take it."

"Thanks, sweetie," Jinora beamed, trying her best to hold down her laughter. She turned to the grinning saleswoman and greeted her friendly. Kai mentally slapped himself for stuttering like a moron in front of his girlfriend, but he attributed it to the nerve-wracking fatigue that was compelling him. He wanted to get out.

"Are you not going to..." he cut in while Jinora was taking money from her purse to pay.

"Swimsuits cannot be tried on," the woman clarified politely, even if there wasn't really anything to be clarified.

"Yes, I didn't, thanks for... You done, Jinora? Let's go."

After the three people exchanged goodbyes, the airbenders made their way through the crowd and set on to find a restaurant. The sun was slashing relentlessly through the air, which made every step seem harder to take. Jinora, however, had a strangely playful and fresh aura around her, like she was literally feeding off sunshine. It was quite a contrast to Kai's unenthusiastic mood, much because of everything he had to endure. For once, he was actually running low on energy and all that jazz.

"Spirits, Kai," Jinora suddenly realized, "We forgot to buy one for you too. I'm sorry, we have to get back now."

In that moment, the teenager's face went downright crimson, which attracted questioning looks from the strangers passing by. Jinora's lack of mercy was defeating him. The girl noticed it too, and decided that her boyfriend went through enough pressure for two days. He puffed, trying to stick together some words in his mind.

"Or maybe we should go get some rest first, okay? We can eat and relax and simply be on vacation afterwards," she said giving his back a comforting pat. "Also, judging by your face, I think you're having a fever." She pressed her fingers to his cheek. "Are you feeling alright, darling?" she teased. Oh, she couldn't help it.

Kai was never the one to let himself be played with so casually, even by his girlfriend. "Actually, I can't wait to get myself some swimming shorts on our way there. Come on, _babe_ , you'll enjoy it."

They didn't speak to each other comfortably for half an hour.


End file.
